1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an apparatus for attaching top end stops to an elongate slide fastener chain with equally spaced element-free spaces defined therein after separable end stops and sliders are mounted while the slide fastener chain is being longitudinally fed along in one direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
One known apparatus for applying top end stops to an elongate slide fastener chain while the chain is being progressively processed into a succession of individual slide fasteners is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 45-16624, for example. The disclosed apparatus includes a top end stop holder composed of a main bar and an auxiliary bar for jointly gripping a pair of top end stops. The top end stop holder receives a pair of top end stops when it is held in a horizontal position, and is then lowered along an arcuate path into a feed path of the slide fastener chain. Then, the inner longitudinal beaded edges of the stringer tapes are fitted respectively in the top end tops held by the top end stop holder from a cut end of the fastener chain by moving the fastener chain with grippers, after which the top end stops are clamped by staking on the beaded edges of the stringer tapes.
The known top end stop applying apparatus is so constructed as to apply top end stops to inner longitudinal tape edges of the slide fastener chain which have been threaded through the top end stops from a cut end of the slide fastener chain after severance of the slide fastener chain. With this construction, the known apparatus is not readily applicable to a top-end-stop application to which the present invention pertains, in which top end stops are applied through an element-free space to a continuous slide fastener chain in advance to severance of the slide fastener chain. If the known apparatus were employed in the present top-end-stops application, then problems would arise, as follows.
Since the top end stop holder descends along the arcuate path, the stringer tapes should be spaced for a long length so that meshing rows of coupling elements mounted thereon are disengaged from each other for a great length along the stringer tapes. Accordingly, the rows of coupling elements will subsequently have to be engaged again by a mounted slider for the same length. As a result, the conventional apparatus has been poor in efficiency, and hence the efficiency of the entire process of finishing slide fasteners has been low.